Let’s take a look at the data we collected through BassTrakk the last two days to see what patterns are starting to develop. There were 250 fish logged into BassTrakk on Day 1. We saw a drop in total numbers, with 224 logged on Day 2. Here’s the breakdown by hour.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 2 | 4 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 33 | 30 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 27 | 30 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 39 | 36 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 30 | 37 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 31 | 26 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 35 | 32 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 38 | 24 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 15 | 5 |
Day 1 saw a fairly consistent bite throughout the day, and Day 2 was more of the same, with a steeper decline in the last two hours worth noting. The more revealing statistic we saw on Day 1 though, came when looking at the quality fish over 3 pounds that were caught.
There were 32 fish over 3 pounds caught on Day 2, down a little from the 38 we saw caught on Day 1. Here’s the breakdown by weight.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 3-pounders | 25 | 21 |
| 4-pounders | 12 | 10 |
| 5-pounders | 1 | 1 |
And here’s the breakdown of when those bigger bites came on Days 1 and 2.
| Day 1 | Day 2 | |
| 7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. | 0 | 0 |
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | 4 | 7 |
| 9 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | 5 | 6 |
| 10 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | 7 | 5 |
| 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | 1 | 2 |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 4 | 3 |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | 6 | 4 |
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | 9 | 5 |
| 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | 2 | 0 |
There was a midday lull in big bites again, which we definitely noticed while watching the LIVE footage coming in off the water on Day 2. But again, the bite picked up in the afternoon, revealing a strong big fish bite to wind the day down. Something worth pointing out that doesn’t showup in the BassTrakk data, most of those early big bites were smallmouth and those caught later in the day were largemouth.
There’s been a dismal largemouth bite all week early, as the shallow water temps bounce back each day. But after several warm nights, we’re finally seeing a decent largemouth bite this morning. This bite should again continue to improve later in the day. But considering there are several green fish already being caught, the big largemouth bite may be better all day today. And that could spell disaster for leader Jeff Gustafson, who has been exclusively targetting smallmouth all week and has only one keeper in the boat, three hours since takeoff.
